Death's Son
by Little.Miss.Xanda
Summary: He was lying in the mud dying, the world was already dead. Voldemort must be in his grave laughing, he had been right all along and now it was to late to do anything about it. Death didn't quite agree with that and now Death's son was going to make the muggles pay for everything they had done. This story will contain slash
1. Death

******Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J. K. Rowling. No money is being made.

**Warnings:** This story will have Slash, violence and torture.

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**Chapter 1 – Death**

Nineteen. Nineteen years. That was for how many years they had peace after the second war against Voldemort had ended in 1998. However after those nineteen years a man rose to power and he plunged them in the most brutal and bloody war that they could have imagined. Though that man wasn't a Dark Lord, by Merlin, the man wasn't even a wizard. A muggle, a simple muggle, started a war that would exterminate life on earth as they knew it.

And now, when Harry was lying on a muddy forest floor, surrounded by muggles laughing while they watched him bleed to death he couldn't help but think of Voldemort and his Death Eaters. He was sure that they were in hell laughing themselves silly, they had been right after all. And now there was nothing they could do about it.

Harry closed his eyes, ready to die, though his last thought brought a smile to his lips. He knew that the bastards that had killed him would join him in hell soon, considering that it was impossible to live on a dead planet.

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Harry awoke slowly. He felt comfortable, his body didn't feel sore. It had been years since he felt that good. If this was death then he rather liked it, it was far better than the last two decades of his life at least.

Cautiously he opened his eyes. From what he could see he was lying on a couch in some sort of study. Harry almost pinched himself to see if he was truly awake. He had been certain that he had died. He never thought that the afterlife would be a study. He had to admit that he was a bit disappointed. However before he could get lost in his thoughts about his apparently boring afterlife a calm, smooth voice, that came from behind him, was heard.

"I see that you are awake, young Master."

Harry was up in the blink of an eye, in a combat position even before his brain could process what he did. Years upon years of war left habits that were hard to break, apparently not even dying broke them.

Behind him was an otherworldly beautiful man, with long silky midnight black hair, and eyes just as dark. They were so dark that Harry couldn't make out his pupils.

Seeing Harry's wand pointed at him the man raised his hands in a universal sign of peace.

"You do not have to worry young Master, I mean you no harm. We just have a few things to clear up, a few choices to make and then you are free to go."

Harry, even though a part of him was screaming at him not to do it, lowered his wand. He just couldn't help it, there was something about the man that was so familiar to him, it made him feel at ease.

That was when he noticed his hands, they looked younger than he remembered.

"Where am I?" he asked, after taking a deep breath, trying not to panic "I was sure that I had died."

The stranger smiled, it transformed the flawless, aristocratic face into something more... more humane. He took a few steps and sat at the desk behind him, inviting Harry to join him.

Slowly, never taking his eyes of the man, he took the few steps towards the chair in front of the desk. Just because he had lowered his wand didn't mean he wouldn't be careful.

"I said there was nothing to worry about young Master," the stranger reassured him, "However I am aware that certain habits are hard to break. Though that doesn't matter at the moment. Answering your previous questions, we are nowhere and everywhere. We just are, it is as simple as that. And about you dying, you did in fact die, which is the problem to begin with."

Harry didn't know if the fact that he had died was making it more difficult to comprehend what he had been told, or if he was simply in shock. Either way something that the being, yes _being_ because no matter how much he looked like one he was sure that the being in front of him wasn't human, stood out in his mind.

"What do you mean, me dying is a problem? And why do you keep calling me young Master? Who are you?"

"Those are questions that will clear this situation right up. Well, we will start with the easiest one. Who I am. I am Death." the being replied calmly, as if announcing that one was the personification of _**Death**_ was the most natural thing in the world. But Death didn't stop there, "I call you young Master because you possess the Deathly Hallows. And the fact that you are the Master of Death, my Master, causes problems."

Harry gawked at Death. He had heard and understood every word that Death said, however it still made no sense whatsoever.

"What do you mean I'm the Master of Death?" he exclaimed, slightly hysterical, after a few seconds of silence, "I thought that all that story with the Hallows was only symbolic. Besides I don't have the wand and the ring anymore. I haven't had been for a good fifty-nine years. Since the battle at Hogwarts with Tom."

Death smiled and again Harry felt himself calm down. He couldn't understand why a being that would scare everyone, make them run for the hills, made him feel so comfortable.

"I find it incredible that you have no trouble in accepting that I am Death and yet you have such a difficult time accepting the truth about the Hallows."

"Those are completely different situations," Harry exclaimed, looking at Death bewildered, "I died, so me being in front of Death isn't really that surprising. Strange? Yes, without a doubt, but not impossible. But the Hallows, that's a completely different story."

Death laugh and Harry was surprised to see true amusement in the powerful being's eyes.

"Ah, young Master, you were always able to amuse me." Death told him, with a grin on his lips.

"Well, it's good to know that my existence causes you joy." Harry replied sarcastically. He knew that pissing of a being as powerful as Death was a bad idea, more than bad actually, but he didn't feel afraid. He felt strangely at ease and that sense of familiarity was back and Harry just didn't understand it.

The smile on Death's face didn't diminish and there was a tenderness in his eyes that Harry hadn't noticed before.

"Yes. I can not deny the fact that your existence causes me joy. I will not deny that your existence brings me happiness either. And that is one of the reasons why the Hallows are not symbolic for you."

Harry waited patiently for Death to continue, however when one minute came and went the little patience that Harry had evaporated.

"I'm sure that what you said is quite logical and explains everything, but I just don't get it."

"Very well, let's start with the Hallows. Do you not find it strange that since the creation of them you were the only one to ever possess them all? It is not for nothing that those that possess the wand or the ring die soon after. A mortal could only possess the Hallows as long as I wished it. No one ever had two of them for long, because as soon as it happened Death marked them quickly after. I always did everything so that no mortal could have all three of them. Do you think that I, Death, would let a mortal bind me? Have power over me? There never was anything that had power over me, that could control me. I am the only thing that is absolute, no matter what. So I could never allow for a mortal to have that kind of power. Even just a fraction of it would be to much.

However all that changed on the night of the 31st of October of 1981. I was there that night. I am not always there when someone or something dies, generally only when it's something that will change the world or when one of my Hallows is about to change hands. Seconds before James Potter died I knew that one of my Hallows was about to get a new owner so I appeared immediately to the person who would next possess it. You can't imagine my surprise when I saw that the on that would possess the Hallow was a toddler, not even a child, a toddler. However, considering the situation you were in I was expecting to feel the Hallow change temporary ownership in the next few seconds. However that didn't happen and in front of me was a toddler that had done something that mortals considered impossible. I was quite surprised, I had thought that the power to do it had died out long ago. Though it surprised me it wouldn't have been enough to keep my interest. No, what kept my interested was the fact that the toddler could see _Me_.

I stayed with you till the half-giant came to get you and I could have let things end there. I could have attributed the fact that you could see me to the Avada Kedavra. However it wasn't that simple. Through the connection you had with on of my Hallows you had a connection to me and every night I could feel you calling me. The first few nights I ignored it, I don't think you even knew what you were doing, though one night I went. After that night I went again and again, till I was going practically every night. And when it became necessary I stayed the whole night with you, taking care of you."

"It was you!" Harry exclaimed, looking at him in wonder, "You were the one who healed me, when the Dursleys beat me, or when I was burned."

"Yes, it was me. I was with you as much as I could. But you grew up and you erased me from your mind. You thought I was an imaginary friend and ended up believing that it was all your imagination, then because of the Dursleys you started to not think about anything that wasn't '_normal_', so you forced yourself to forget me. However your soul never forgot, your soul always remembered me. I still watched over you ever night, even if you could no longer see me.

Then when you finally used the Hallow for the first time I noticed the difference immediately. The Hallow belonged to you, it was as much yours as it was mine, something that had never happened before. After seeing the difference in that Hallow I went to look at the others. There was a difference as well. Usually the Hallows had two connections. One with me, and a really weak on with the current holder. However in that moment there were three. One with me, one with the current holder and one with you.

I have to admit to being rather shocked. The Hallows are a part of me and for them to have that kind of connection with you would only be possible if you were also a part of me, or I a part of you. I was never sure about how it happened, but when you called and I answered, we sealed our fate, and you were out of Life's grasp.

After I realized that, I noticed that I had feelings, emotions, for you. Those emotions lead to you possessing all three Hallows. I had parental feelings towards you and what father wants to see their child die?

So the Hallows stopped being symbolic and you became the Master of Death.

So even after you gave up the other two, they were still as much linked to you as I was, they were still yours, you were still the Master of Death."

Death didn't say anything else and Harry was really grateful for that. He needed a moment, well, alright, he needed much more than a moment. After all it wasn't every day that you found out that Death had practically adopted you. Taking advantage of the silence Harry looked through his memories, trying to find something that would make him remember the being in front of him. However the only thing he could remember was the feeling of comfort, tenderness and care when he thought that he had lost all strength. Had that been Death helping in any way it could? Was that why he had that feeling of familiarity? Because his soul remembered, knew the being in font of him. Knew that that being had always been there for him, even when his mind couldn't or wouldn't remember him anymore. Was that why he felt so comfortable, so safe?

"I... I don't understand..." whispered Harry, "Why me?"

"You have to understand Harry, I am Death. Mortals don't interact with me, nothing interacts with me. They are far to afraid. I do not really care about it either. Millenniums went by with me just being and observing. But with you, I didn't just observe. I got involved and that changed everything, do you understand? I saw billions be born and die. I saw worlds start and end. I was always there seeing the beginning and ending, never involving myself. But with you... I helped you grow, I raised you."

And Harry understood. He had children that he saw being born, children that he raised, children that he saw die and he knew that there was nothing worse than seeing your child die.

"I understand." he whispered, looking at Death and smiling slightly.

They stayed silent, savoring the moment of peace. Reluctantly Harry broke it, no matter how comfortable he felt he still had lots of questions.

"What does it mean, being Master of Death?"

Death looked him in the eyes and sighed, surprising him by doing such a human gesture.

"Being Master of Death has several advantages. For example Avada Kedavras have no effect on you whatsoever. The Hallows answer to you as if they were a part of you. You can't die."

"But... But I died." Harry said, looking a bit confused, if he couldn't die, why was he dead?

For the first time he saw anger appear on Death face, an all consuming anger that threatened to destroy everything in it's path. Though when those eyes focused on him he could see the sadness in them.

"Yes, you did." he said softly, tenderly, as if the mere thought was painful, "My intention was to let you live a normal life. I knew how much you wanted it, so I had decided to let you live your mortal life without interfering, though always keeping a close eye on you, watching you grow and be happy. Then when you died I would tell you the truth about the Hallows, including the fact that you are immortal. You are tied to me, Death, in an unbreakable way so as long as there is Life there will be Death. We will exist till the end of time and even beyond that, since every end is followed by a beginning and every beginning has Life and Death." Harry knew that he was looking at Death incredulously, how could he not be, he was being told that he would outlive everything there was or would ever be, it was quite a lot to take in. Death smiled gently at him, "As I was saying, after you died I would tell you the truth and give you two choices. The first one would be, you going back, you would be de-aged to around twenty something and continue to live your life however you wanted or you could be reborn, not remembering your previous live, till you reached your magical maturity at seventeen.

As a matter of fact those are still your options, but those mortals..." Death practically snarled it was rather terrifying, even if he didn't feel afraid, "The planet is dead. It's only a matter of time till all life on earth ceases to be, from what I've seen it won't be longer than six months. So those two choices don't really exist anymore."

Harry didn't really know what to say, he had never wanted immortality but he knew he couldn't blame Death. He hadn't done it consciously and besides Death was doing everything in it's power so that it would be easier on him. Besides if Death truly saw him as a son, it would be rather cruel to tell him to let his son die. The pain that it caused, it wasn't something that he wanted Death to feel. However since the situation was what it was he couldn't help the question that slipped passed his lips before he could stop it.

"Now what?"

"Now you have three options, the same two as before, though I wouldn't recommend them and another one. Another one that usually I wouldn't even be able to think about giving you but considering the situation I belief it is the best option. I am able to send you back in time, with all your memories, all your knowledge, all your power. There are three points in history where I can drop you. To 1981, after the Cloak becomes officially yours, to 1994 before the beginning of the tournament because it's a turning point in your life one way or another, or to 1998 around the time of the final battle, since it's the first time that you have the Hallows. I am not able to give you specific dates since I won't be able to drop you somewhere specific, only an approximate time. You have to keep in mind that no matter what happens you won't change this present, dropping you somewhere in the past will split the time-line, it will create an alternate reality where everything, till the moment that you go back is identical to your previous life. After you join your younger body you are free to do whatever you wish, you won't have to worry about the time-line or anything like it."

"Whatever I wish?" Harry asked, is voice calm, deadly, "Even if I wished to completely destroy the muggles?"

For a few seconds Death just looked at him, then a smiled appeared on his lips.

"It is your choice son. You could decide to burn the whole world to the ground and I wouldn't care. I know how much you suffered and I know how vindictive and cruel you can be. You may have been pure Light at the beginning of your life, but you aren't anymore. I do not doubt that you plan on making the muggles' lives hell. Besides I'm quite happy to know that you are planning to cause chaos and death." Death replied, a cruel and sadistic smirk on his lips.

Harry chuckled darkly, Death may have parental feelings towards him but he didn't stop being _**Death**_, a being that thrived on chaos and death.

"Well apparently I'm joining the family business. Chaos and death."

Death laugh and the tenderness and pried in those darker than black eyes was undeniable.

"You don't know how much it means to me that you accepted this with such an opened mind."

"At the beginning I felt such familiarity, I felt so comfortable. I couldn't understand why. It makes so much sense now. And though a part of me will always love my parents, another part of me can't help but feel happy that there is someone that will always be by my side and love me like a son. Even being seventy-six years old, it's such a comfort to know that I have a father that will stand by me no matter what. Even if I can't see you, I will know that you are there."

"Can I assume that you will take the third option then?"

Harry nodded and Death laughed.

"Wonderful. We just have some things to clear up and then you will be ready to go.

First, now you are immortal, you will be going back to the body that corresponds to the point in time that you end up choosing. However when you become twenty you will stop aging. Avada Kedavras do not affect you. Injuries heal faster, much faster, but if you suffer a fatal injury you will end up here. I will repair your body and you will be able to get back almost instantaneously. You also have the option to stay here of course, though I think that you will always choose to go back. Unless you want a break from the mortals.

Second, the Deathly Hallows are yours. They will be yours in whichever time you drop, so if you touch them they will respond to you and only you. And even if you throw them away they will appear on your person. You are the true master of the Hallows.

Third, I'm giving you a gift. You already had the possibility, but you were never trained, no one even knew that you had the ability as such it wasn't trained, remaining mostly dormant throughout your life. It is the reason why you survived the killing curse.

Your mother's sacrifice, while powerful, wouldn't have been powerful enough. Tough your ability combined with the sacrifice made it possible. You, my son, are an elemental. By your look I can see that you know what those are. Don't worry, my gift is complete control over your ability.

You will have all ten elements at your disposal. Water, Earth, Wind and Fire are only the base ones, those that everyone can use in some way. For example when a witch or wizard can cast stronger fire spells than water spells, or when they are particularly good at Herbology that is them tapping in to their elemental gift. Though true elementals have been thought to be extinct since the Founders of Hogwarts. The difference is that when trained elementals can control all ten elements. Aside from Water, Earth, Wind and Fire you have Lightning, Gravity, Light, Shadow, Life and Death. I ask you to be careful with Life and Death, even with complete control over your abilities those two are difficult to handle. Aside from that you have to be careful with your emotions. Like magic the elements will answer to your emotions, so if you don't want to raze a town to the ground in a fit of anger, you should try to have a bit of control over your emotions. Though if at first you aren't in complete control don't worry. You were always an emotional being, I don't expect, nor want, for you to stop being so.

Finally, you are my son. Now that you know you will change. It won't be much, only little things. Your hair will become darker, your skin paler. With time you won't need glasses. It won't change so much that people will notice if they aren't looking for it. Most will attribute it to you growing up and coming into your own. And it won't be overnight, so you don't have to worry about people thinking that something is wrong.

Now you just have to choose where you want to go son."

"They all have advantages and disadvantages," muttered Harry, more to himself than Death. Thinking about all that he could do, everything he could change, every ramification that his choice had. With a determined light in his eyes he looked at Death, the only being that had always been with him, the only one who would never judge him or expect something from him, his Father, "I know to when I want to go."

"Very well," Death said, smiling and getting up from his seat, "Then for the time being it's good-bye."

Harry hesitate for a moment, then, slowly, he walked towards Death and hugged him. At first he felt insecure but when Death wrapped his arms around him Harry felt, for the first time in his life, what it was like to be hugged by a father. He may be over seventy, but he had always felt a hole in his heart, a hole where his parents were supposed to be and now he could feel his soul rejoicing to having his father back, even if he couldn't remember that it was Death that he had been missing.

"Can't we see each other again?" he asked, his voice no louder than a whisper, he felt like a child again, "Won't we able to talk?"

Death's arms tighten around him and he felt Death bury his head in his hair.

"Now that you know the truth we will be able to see and talk to each other every time you want. You will know how to call me. I may not be able to see you every day, but every time you need me I will be there."

Harry nodded and let go of Death. With a small smile on his lips Death took a step back.

"Good luck my son."

"Thank you father." Harry replied then everything went black, if that hadn't been the case he would have seen the brilliant smile that had appeared on Death's face and the pride and love in his eyes.

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**A.N.**: Well, this is my new story. Hope you enjoy it :)


	2. A different kind of Animal

******Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J. K. Rowling. No money is being made.

**Warnings:** This story will have Slash, violence and torture. Mentions of Rape.

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**Chapter 2 – A different kind of animal**

Harry saw only darkness for a few moments, then he felt like he was falling. It was like diving with his broom and Harry felt excited, flying had always been his passion. The one thing he could do when he was trying to leave his problems behind.

However the sensation stopped abruptly and light blinded him. It took a few moments for him to come to his senses, but he knew what must have happened. He was in his younger body.

He opened his eyes, he had closed them automatically because of the sudden brightness. Even so it hadn't been as bright as it could have been, he noticed that the Great Hall was darker than what he remembered. He was trying to remember when this was, but it was more difficult than he had thought. He just couldn't focus.

He was at Hogwarts! Hogwarts! He hadn't seen Hogwarts whole in almost fifteen years. He remembered as if it was yesterday the last time that he had seen Hogwarts. The castle had been in ruins, the muggles had launched an areal attack destroying a castle that had given a home to children for more than a thousand years. They didn't care that it was a school. On the contrary, the fact that it was a school had been the main reason why they had done it. After all if they destroyed the place where they were taught their freakish ways then the freaks wouldn't have a place to teach their children those abnormalities. At least that had been the reasoning from the muggles. They said they were saving the children. If they stopped the children from being abominations than maybe they could be saved, not in this life of course, they had to be killed for being born to freaks, but in the afterlife. Harry contained a snort. They were nothing more than fucking hypocrites. He hated them all.

He could still see the coffins that had filled the Hogwarts grounds, including the one of his daughter, Lily. His little girl had been so happy to go to Hogwarts with her brothers. They had thought that at Hogwarts at least they would be safe. How could they have known what the muggles would do. At least his sons had still been alive than. Their family still had hope, even if it was becoming bleaker by the second.

Only years of experience stopped him from showing any reaction when he saw who was sitting beside him. Hermione and Ron. The last time he had seen Hermione had been about ten years ago. Not even ten years of war made her stop believing and fighting for equality of all beings. She had been killed in an ambush. They said they wanted peace, that they were tired of fighting, that they wanted to find a solution, that they wanted to sign a peace treaty between the two races. They lied.

They send her body back to her family. One piece at a time.

Ron would have been better of if he had died with her. Ron stopped living. He joined all the raids he could find against the muggles. The more violent the better. Three years later he joined Hermione. He had been trapped in a muggle base, however before the muggles got him he was able to destroy the base, taking over three hundred muggles with him. Harry knew that was the way he had wanted to go. By the time that Ron died their family was reduced to Teddy, Fleur, Arthur, Fred II, George, Al, Rose and James. Everyone else had already died. Harry still believed that Ron went on that raid knowing that he wouldn't make it out alive. Not that Harry blamed him, he had buried his son the previous day.

In that moment, that instant in time that took for him to take everything in, he swore that he wouldn't let it happen again. No matter the cost. No matter how many _innocent_, as if there was such a thing, muggles would suffer for something that hadn't yet and wouldn't happen. They would die and his kind would live. He would make sure of it.

Only seconds had passed since he opened his eyes, but to him it seemed like an eternity. Fortunately the whole Great Hall was focused on the professors table and they hadn't noticed his odd behavior. However before he could focus and try and remember why the hall was so quite, Harry heard Dumbledore's voice proclaim.

"The Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory!"

Harry heard Ron exclaim "No!", but he paid it no mind. Now he knew when he was. Now he remembered the reason for the silence in the Great Hall. It was the night that the Goblet chose the champions. Harry hardly heard the applause, he didn't even notice when Dumbledore addressed the students again. Harry's eyes were fixed on the Goblet and just as Harry knew it would happen the fire burned red again and another slip of parchment was spat out. And just like Harry remembered it Dumbledore snatched it up and stared at the name on it for a few moments. There was a long pause, Dumbledore doing nothing but looking at the name on the parchment and everyone in the hall looking at Dumbledore. And then, what seemed like an eternity later, Dumbledore read the name that Harry knew would be on the parchment.

"Harry Potter."

Just like last time everyone turned to look at him, there was no applause and the students started whispering. However that is where the similarities ended. Instead of sitting there in shock he got up and went towards the professors' table. He walked with confidence, sure of himself in a way he hadn't been when he was fourteen. He had a feline grace, something that he also lacked in his younger years. He was a completely different animal now and he had no intentions of hiding it. And since he was going to participate in the tournament he may as well take advantage of it.

It took less time than he remembered to reach the table and before he knew it he was in front of Dumbledore.

"Well... Go inside Harry." Dumbledore told him without the usual twinkle in his eyes.

Harry, just like he did the first time, went through the door and found himself in a smaller room, full of paintings and a lit fireplace.

Viktor Krum, Cedric Diggory and Fleur Delacour were in a group near the fireplace and as soon as they heard him the turned to look at him.

"What is it?" Fleur asked, "Do zey want us back in ze Hall?"

Harry almost smiled when he remembered how flustered he was the first time.

"No." he replied, he didn't miss the inquisitive look the other three threw him, however he said nothing else and a few moments later he heard noise behind him and Ludo Bagman appeared through the door. He took Harry by the arm and pulled him forward, not noticing or completely ignoring Harry's scowl.

"Extraordinary!" he exclaimed, squeezing Harry's arm, "Absolutely extraordinary! Gentlemen, Lady," he added approaching the other three, "May I introduce, incredible though it may seem, the _fourth_ Triwizard champion!"

The three champions had the exact same reactions that Harry remembered.

Cedric looked between him and Bagman appearing rather confused.

Viktor looked at him suspiciously and seemed to be evaluating him to see if he posed any threat.

Fleur looked at him with contempt and threw a tantrum that would have made a three year old proud.

It was hard seeing that reaction. Fleur had been on of the last to die. One of the last to leave him. Seeing this girl, looking so much like her yet not, was almost as hard as seeing Ron and Hermione. Fleur hadn't looked so innocent and young in a long time. Not since the muggles took Victoire. Not since they found her body in the streets. Raped, bloodied and broken.

She had been so young, almost twenty-two, he was the only one that knew that her and Teddy had been talking about marriage. He was the only one that they had told. Victoire was the first of all of their children to fall to the muggles. She was the one that made all of their children hate muggles with a passion that rivaled that of the Death Eaters.

She was the beginning of their war, even though by that time the war had already been declared for going on two years. They were so fucking naïve back then. They still thought that they could solve things peacefully. By that time there hadn't been a lot of deaths yet. There had only been a few attacks, they still had hope. Losing Victoire was a catalyst for all of them.

The word _muggle_ was spoken with hate, they stopped venturing to the muggle world, they didn't even go to visit the Grangers, two people that all the children had always seen as their own grand-parents. It had broken Hermione's heart, but she understood, Victoire's death had pained her just as much.

Fortunately the door opened again and brought him out of his thoughts, now wasn't the time to drown in his memories. Dumbledore, followed by Crouch, Karkaroff, Maxime, McGonagall and Snape stepped inside.

"Madame Maxime!" said Fleur once she saw her Headmistress, "Zey are saying zat zis little boy is to compete also!"

Harry felt anger wash over him, he had forgotten that remark. He had to stop himself from telling her what the little boy thought about her behavior. For a moment or two he had been worried that he wouldn't be able to stop associating the people that were here now from the people he knew in the future that wasn't the future, at least not in the current time-line. However he was relieved to see that it would be rather easy. These people weren't like the ones that had lost everything, even themselves, to the horrors of war. It would be best if he just stayed away from them. If things turned out like the first time around then everyone would turn on him, he was quite sure that they would do the same this time. It would probably be more of a blessing if they did. He could stay away from them and at the same time do everything he could to keep them safe. Either way he doubted that they would want to have anything to do with him after they realize just what he became and what he was prepared to do to keep his people safe. He would be no better than Voldemort to them. He didn't care though. He would rather be reviled and know that he had done everything he could to keep them safe, than adored and see them die. Besides it would be far less painful for him to stay away from them. He had a family, he lost them, he couldn't save them. It would be unfair to them and to himself to stay with them. He would always expect to see the ones he had lost and he knew that these people no matter how similar weren't them. Ginny wasn't his wife and would never be. Ron wasn't his second in command and he wouldn't ask it of him. Hermione wasn't their healer. They were just children. Innocent, naïve children. Not broken, bitter adults.

Maxime's arrogance didn't help him in dealing with his temper. Something that was always so close to the surface the last few years. If there was one thing he hated it were pretentious people. They reminded him to much of the muggles that hunted them. That killed their children because they were an affront to God. He couldn't help but remember two muggles killing their own child because he was one of the _abominations_, all the while preaching that they were doing God's will in that same arrogant tone, so full of conviction. It made him want to kill them all over again. If only they had arrived just a few seconds earlier they would have been able to save the child. He lost count of the number of muggle-borns that suffered the same fate. Far more than those they were able to save. But in the end it didn't really matter, did it? Everyone had died.

He closed his eyes for a second, trying to not let the memories overwhelm him then looked around the room. He had missed most of Maxime's ranting but Karkaroff was all to happy to continue where she had stopped. He must have been trying to scare Harry in to submission whit that look. Not that it was having much of an effect, he had seen far worse.

However his luck couldn't last and Snape had always known how to push his buttons. He had completely forgotten what he had said all those years ago, till that moment.

"It is no one's fault but Potter's, Karkaroff," said Snape softly, his black eyes alight with malice, "Don't go blaming Dumbledore for Potter's determination to break rules. He has been crossing lines ever since he arrived here..."

It wasn't even the worst that Snape had said to him or about him, but something just broke. The first time it had been Dumbledore who stopped him but not this time. The temperature in the room dropped drastically, not even the fire in the fireplace was able to heat the room, and the shadows around the room seemed to grow and almost looked like they gained a life of their own.

Those in the room looked around, trying to see what was wrong. It didn't surprise Harry in the least that Dumbledore was the first to identify him as the source of the disturbance. The others seeing where Dumbledore was looking at followed his gaze. Seeing more than one pair of eyes open wide brought him some satisfaction, even though he had no idea why they were looking at him like that.

Harry couldn't see himself, but if he could he would understand their reaction. The floor where he was standing was frozen, forming a strange snowflake pattern that had his body as the center. The shadows seemed to dance around him, clinging to his body like a second skin. His eyes almost shined in the dimly lit room. Harry would never know that the first thing that Dumbledore, Snape and Karkaroff thought was: _Voldemort_.

True, aside from the dark hair they didn't look alike, but their stance was almost identical. Harry had that same air of confidence around him, that same feel of power. That same cruel, insane edge that Voldemort had. He looked far darker than they had ever seen him and for just a second Dumbledore and Snape wondered if Harry had finally been pushed to far.

With deliberate slow and smooth movements Harry took out his wand. He didn't miss the fact that several hands twitched towards their wands. He almost smiled when he saw it. They feared him. He was sure that in the future they would fear him even more.

"I, Hadrian James Potter, swear on my magic that I did not put, nor did I ask anyone else to put my name in the Goblet of Fire. So mote it be."

A soft golden light wrapped around him for a few moments, when it dissipated Harry murmured, "_Lumos_." and light shone out of his wand.

Locking eyes with the potions Master he inquired in a deliberate emotionless voice.

"Now that it is all cleared up, may I go? I have better things to do than to see children fighting over their new toy."

Maxime, Karkaroff and Fleur blushed slightly, though their glare didn't lessen. However before they could say anything an inhuman scream filled the room and they all turned around in time to see Snape fall over. It didn't last longer than five seconds and none of them saw the smirk that appeared on Harry's face before it was replaced by a confused and apprehensive look.

Harry knew that the temptation to look into his mind would be overwhelming for Snape and as soon as Harry felt the legilimency prob he grabbed Snape's conscious and doubling the sensation of the Cruciatus curse flung it into Snape's mind. And what made him want to cackle was the fact that Snape could do nothing about it. If he did he would have to admit that he had been using legilimency on a minor, which would get him a one way ticket to Azkaban.

Even after so many years he couldn't stand the man. Sure he had named his son after him, but it hadn't been his idea. However everyone in the family was in one way or another named after someone or something related to the war and his children were no exception. He had named his firstborn James Sirius, in honor of his father and godfather. Ginny had wanted to name the second child and knowing what she did about the war she choose Albus and Severus, two of the greatest war heroes. He will never understand why she did it. Albus, the man that was supposed to be his mentor but used him as a weapon, sometimes he couldn't help but wonder if Albus had truly every seen him as anything but the end of Voldemort. He didn't really hate the man, but he didn't know if he could ever see the man as anything other than the one who would kill him for the '_Greater Good_'. Severus, the man that despised him for simply existing. Sure he may have loved his mother, but he would never fool himself in to thinking that Snape held anything but contempt for him. He could understand if tit was because of something he had done but he knew that it was purely because he was James' son. At least at the beginning. He could admit that as the years went by Snape's hate could have changed from hating him because he was James's son, to hating him because of everything he had done over the years. He had wondered if Snape was jealous of him. They were rather similar, but while Snape had been bullied and hated for being who he was, Harry had been pitied, adored and worshiped. It would be reason enough for the man to become even more bitter towards anything named Potter. Even so he couldn't really say no, both men were heroes and everyone assumed that he had made peace with what had happened. Really it could have been worse, she could have named him Tom. Though knowing what he knew now, maybe it would have been better.

However, the fact remained that he did not like the man and he didn't think that he ever would. Even after the memories that Snape showed him he didn't really know which side Snape had been on. Harry wouldn't be surprised if Snape was only loyal to himself. Becoming useful to both sides was an easy way to make sure that whichever side won he came out on top. He admitted that it was clever but it didn't make him like Snape any more than he did.

He had far more respect for certain Death Eaters than he did for Snape. The Death Eaters at least fought for what they believed in. Sure, some were so far gone that they didn't really care about what they killed for, but he wasn't talking about those.

He knew that some of his disdain came from the years of war that he had gone through. But it was impossible to look back at Snape's role and not see the similarities to some wizards and witches that betrayed their own kind to the muggles, so that they could live. They had played both sides, giving a little here, a little there. They were useful enough to both sides that they stayed alive and when it became clear that there was no chance of the magical beings surviving they showed their true colors. He hated them even more than the muggles and took great pleasure in getting all the information about the muggles that they had out of them, most were in worst state than the Longbottoms when he was done with them.

"Severus! Severus, what happened?" Dumbledore's voice brought him out of his thoughts and he could see that they were all looking at Snape apprehensively.

"Severus!" Dumbledore's voice was once again heard throughout the room.

"I'm fine!" Snape almost snarled, getting up with some difficulty and even though he tried to hide it it was impossible to not notice the trembling in his hands.

"What happened?" Dumbledore inquired gravely and Harry could see the interest in the others. They didn't care about Snape, they weren't worried, they just wanted a show. McGonagall was the only one who looked truly concerned about Snape. This time he didn't have to feign the curiosity, he wondered what Snape would do.

Snape's eyes landed on him for a fraction of second and he wasn't able to suppress the slightly sadistic smirk that appeared on his lips. Snape's eyes opened a little wider and he became even paler. Snape tore his eyes away from him and looked at Dumbledore. The whole interaction didn't last longer than a second and no one noticed anything.

"It was nothing!" snarled Snape, trying to sound intimidating. Harry thought that if he wasn't so pale and shaking it would have worked far better.

Dumbledore didn't seemed satisfied with that answer, however he didn't push his Potions Master. Apparently he knew that he wouldn't get anything else out of him, at least not with so many people around. Harry had the feeling that Dumbledore would ambush Snape with offers of lemon drops sometime soon and try to weasel information out of him. That almost made him pity the Potions Master, almost.

Seeing that nothing more was going to happen Harry broke the somewhat uncomfortable silence.

"Can I go know? Since I already proved that I didn't enter myself."

Harry knew that he couldn't, he knew that he had to participate but he had a role to play. They all turned around to look at him and Harry almost sighed. Karkaroff and Maxime were looking at him with rage in their eyes, as if it was all his fault. Even though he had proved that it hadn't been him. Apparently they were determined to blame him no matter what, not that it bothered him all that much. Human stupidity had ceased to surprise him several years back. He did however want to get all of it over with, did they think he had nothing better to do? He did in fact have better things to do. Killing around five or six billion muggles being one of those things.

He ignored everyone around him and focused on Bagman, waiting for him to answer his question. Bagman cleaned his childlike face with a handkerchief and looked at Crouch, who was lurking in the shadows. He had forgotten how creepy the man looked. He vaguely wondered if Barty Jr. looked like his mother, he looked far cuter than his father at least. Even when he was being a little crazy psychopath he managed to look rather cute and much less creepy than his dear old dad.

"We have to follow the rules," Crouch stated in a monotone, "And they clearly state that all the people who's name comes out of the Goblet of Fire have to compete in the tournament."

"Well, Barty knows the rules back and forth." Bagman said, smiling openly and turning around to Maxime and Karkaroff as if that was everything there was to say about the matter.

"I insist on adding the names of my students to the Goblet again," he looked a little demented in Harry's opinion, though he kind of understood where he came from. Karkaroff wanted to win against Dumbledore. Both he and Maxime wanted to prove that Hogwarts wasn't the best school, they wanted to prove that they were better than Dumbledore. Though he supposed that Karkaroff's intentions were far more malicious than Maxime's, with him being an ex-Death Eater and all. Maybe ex-Death Eater wasn't the correct term, dead Death Eater sounded much better. "We will continue to put our students' names in the Goblet till all the schools have two Champions, it's only fair Dumbledore."

"But, Karkaroff, the Goblet doesn't work like that," Bagman tried to explain, "The Goblet of Fire has just gone out, it won't reignite until the start of the next tournament."

"In which Durmstrang won't be participating!" exclaimed Karkaroff, "After all our meetings and negotiations and compromises, I did not expect something of this nature to occur! I have half a mind to leave now!"

"Empty threat, Karkaroff," growled a voice from near the door. "You can't leave your champion now. He's got to compete. They've all got to compete. Binding magical contract, like Dumbledore said. Convenient, eh?"

Moody had just entered the room. He limped toward the fire, and with every right step he took, there was a loud clunk.

Harry almost cackled. Barty was back. He didn't really know how, but he would have to take advantage of having one of Voldemort's loyal Death Eaters so close at hand. He would have so much fun tormenting Barty a little. Still Barty could be a valuable resource. Maybe he could use him to contact Voldemort. If there was one thing he knew for sure it was that he needed to contact Voldemort, preferably before he performed the ritual. From what he had learned that ritual was one of the reason why Voldemort lost so much of his sanity. But now he could make Voldemort a body, which wouldn't drive him more insane the longer he had it. However he would have to talk with him first. He didn't want to fight Voldemort, they wanted the same thing this time around. He just had to convince him that it would be better for Voldemort not to try and kill him, who knew maybe they could bond over some muggle torture. There was nothing like a good old fashioned torture session to bring people together, or at least to bring two powerful bloodthirsty dark wizards together. They could be good allies, as long as Voldemort didn't expect him to grovel at his feet.

"Convenient?" said Karkaroff. "I'm afraid I don't understand you, Moody."

Harry vaguely recalled the conversation that followed and he had to admit that Barty was an excellent actor and had far more self-control than Harry. If it were him he would have killed Karkaroff the moment he saw him, specially if he had been responsible for sending a fellow Death Eater to Azkaban.

When Fleur started to go on and on about fame and glory. That there was no reason for Harry to complain since he was going to get both and there was a thousand galleon price if he won, he wasn't able to contain the laugh that he had been holding back. It wasn't overly loud but it echoed in the room, giving it a slightly eery feeling and gained everyone's attention. His smile didn't reach his eyes and his expression clearly showed the disdain he had for most people in the room.

"Eternal fame and glory?" he asked, lifting an eyebrow, "Tell me Fleur, what are the names of the last three Champions to have participated in this little tournament? Or just the winner really?"

There were several moments that no one said anything and Harry's eyes never left Fleur's. When a minute went by and Fleur still hadn't said anything a somewhat cruel smirk appeared on Harry's face.

"Hmm, apparently eternity doesn't last as long as I thought." his voice was the perfect mixture of pure innocence and sarcasm. Harry caught Barty containing a smirk and he almost chuckled. It looked like Barty was finding the situation as amusing as Harry.

Unfortunately Fleur wasn't finding the situation half as funny as them. She actually stomped her foot on the ground and almost shouted, "You could still win the thousand galleon prize money."

Harry chuckled and looked at her as if she was nothing more than a troublesome child.

"I am Hadrian James Potter, Heir to the Potter House and last living Potter. My inheritance makes the Malfoys look poor. A thousand galleons are nothing but pocket change to me. As you can see I have absolutely no interest in this tournament. Besides, I already proved, without a shadow of a doubt, that I did not enter the tournament. Now, could we get this done with? I have better things to do than standing here and see people throwing temper tantrums." he asked, looking at Bagman, the one supposedly responsible about all things tournament related.

"We do not know how this situation came to be," Dumbledore said, talking to everyone in the room, "It seems to me that he have no other choice but to accept it. Both Cedric and Harry have been chosen to compete in this tournament, so that is what they will do."

"Ah, but Dumbly-dorr..."

"My dear Madame Maxime, if you have an alternative, I would be delighted to hear it."

Dumbledore waited, but Madame Maxime did not speak, she merely glared. She wasn't the only one either. Snape looked furious; Karkaroff livid; Bagman, however, looked rather excited. Harry didn't really care one way or the other, what mattered to him was that they were finally progressing with the whole thing.

The rest of the conversation went by just as he remembered and only a few minutes later he was alone with Cedric, heading towards their common rooms. Harry was pondering what he would do next when Cedric broke the comfortable silence.

"I will tell the rest of the Hufflepuffs that you didn't enter the tournament, I'll tell them that you toke an Oath."

Harry glanced at him from the corner of his eyes. Last time Cedric hadn't believed him, no matter how much he told him that he hadn't entered. He supposed that the Oath made it rather obvious that he hadn't done it. What he wouldn't have given to have known that the first time around, it would have saved him a lot of trouble.

"You don't have to." Harry assured him. He was rather curious in seeing how things would differ this time around.

"I know that I don't have to, but you will have one less problem to deal with this way. I think that not everyone will believe that you didn't enter the tournament, but at least this way you won't have any trouble with the Puffs. Some may not like it, but they won't blame you."

Harry smiled, "Thank you. I'll see you later, yeah?" he said, walking towards the stairs, "Oh, by the way, congratulations." he added turning around to smile at Cedric.

"Thanks Potter." he replied, a boyish smile on his face and Harry vowed that he would make sure that Cedric survived the damn thing. If things went as he wanted then there wouldn't even be a graveyard involved this time around.

He wasn't surprised when he saw that the Gryffindors' reaction was the same as the first time. On one hand he thought that maybe it would be best like this, maybe it was best that they drifted apart, he didn't think that his friends would agree with his plans, no matter how vague they were at the moment. He would miss them. But he knew that they wouldn't condone what he wanted to do. Specially Hermione.

If he kept repeating it, then maybe he would actually believe it. He knew that a part of him was still grieving. That bit of him didn't want to be near them. He didn't want to see them and see the people he had known. But he had always been a Gryffindor no matter how much Slytherin he had in him, so he didn't want to take the cowards route and avoid them. However nothing stopped him from employing his Slytherin side and finding ways to make them avoid him.

On another hand a part of him was bursting with joy, his friends, his family, they were alive! Alive and whole and he would make damn sure that they continued to stay that way.

He went to bed with a small, satisfied smile. He may not know what the future held but it couldn't be worse than the present he had left. He knew that there were a number of things that could go wrong. He knew that he still had the whole situation with Voldemort to deal with. And he couldn't forget about Dumbledore either, no matter what he didn't think that Dumbledore would just sit by and watch the muggles being killed. But that didn't matter at the moment. He didn't think that he would find a solution to all of it right at that moment. Besides it had been years since he had slept in a bed. He could go to sleep knowing that the world would still be there in the morning. It was a thought that he hadn't had for quite some time.

* * *

**A.N.:** Hey, hope you all like this chapter as well. I wasn't expecting the huge response for just that first chapter. You are all great.

The chapter there will be more Daddy!Death and Voldemort will make his first appearance :)


	3. Strange Alliance

******Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J. K. Rowling. No money is being made.

**Warnings:** This story will have Slash, violence and torture.

* * *

**Chapter 3 – Strange alliance **

When Harry woke up the next morning it took him a few moments to remember why he was lying in a bed and not in some forest floor. When he remembered he couldn't stop the cackle from escaping his lips. Either he had completely lost his mind or the previous night had truly happened.

There was only one way to be certain. Not that he didn't want it to be true, but he needed to make sure, he needed that small assurance. He needed to call Death. Just to be absolutely sure that he hadn't lost his mind. There was only a little problem, how did he call Death?

"Hello Harry."

"Shit!" Harry swore, almost jumping out of his skin. There, sitting on the edge of his bed, was Death. Harry glared at him when he laughed.

"Did you want something?" his eyes had that same warmth in them that Harry remembered from the previous night.

"I... I just needed to be sure." murmured Harry, momentarily forgetting his annoyance at being startled. "I don't know what to do. I know what I want, but I don't really know where to start. What if I do something wrong? What if the world is destroyed again?"

"Then it is." Death replied calmly, "The only thing that made me angry with the previous world's destruction was that you suffered. I am Death, Harry. The death of a planet is not something that saddens me. If you destroy this planet then we will move on to another one. It is as simple as that. You are no longer mortal, you are still a wizard, a human, but you are not mortal. For beings like us, the death of one planet is something quite insignificant."

Harry nodded. It made sense. Death had told him that he would outlive anyone and everything, he couldn't afford to let every single death affect him. Sooner or later it would drive him crazy, well crazier.

"I think I just needed a little push to accept that." whispered Harry, leaning back on his headboard. "I know you told me yesterday but I think I was to shocked to really understand what you were saying."

"It is understandable my son." Death assured him, a small smile on his lips, "Have you decided what to do then?"

"Speaking with Voldemort is the first thing on the list." Harry answered immediately.

"Do you have to?" Death grumbled and Harry chuckled when he saw his mulish expression.

"I thought that you would like him. Considering all the destruction, chaos and death that he causes I would have guessed that he was one of your favorite people."

"And he is." Death muttered, "I would just like him better if he stayed away from you, that's all."

It had never crossed his mind, but if it had, he was sure that he wouldn't have imagined Death as such a caring father.

"Thank you." Harry told him, making Death look at him curiously.

"For what?"

"Everything."

Death's eyes were filled with so much affection that Harry's breath caught in his throat. Slowly Death raised his hand, he gave Harry time to move away, when Harry didn't move he caressed his cheek and smiled at him.

"Anything for you, my son."

Harry felt his heart fill with happiness. He had waited a lifetime to hear those words and now he would have eternity to enjoy them.

The moment between them was broken when they heard someone coming towards the dorm.

"Call me if you need anything." Death told him and just when the door was opening he vanished.

Hermione walked in, she had a few toasts in her hand and looked slightly peeved.

"Good morning Hermione." he greeted her and she smiled at him, her annoyance vanishing when she saw him in such a good mood.

"Good morning. I thought that you would want to avoid the Great Hall this morning."

"Is it that bad?" he asked. He had been hopeful that things would have been better this time around.

"The Hufflepuffs, surprisingly enough, are angry about the situation but not with you. Most of those in sixth and seventh year are worried about you, especially those that wanted to participate. They read about the previous tournaments and tasks. The Ravenclaws are split, the older ones have no doubt that you did not enter, especially because you swore it on your magic. But the younger ones, especially the girls, support Cedric and think you are lying. The Slytherins... Well the Slytherins are the same as always. Gryffindor is one hundred percent behind you, at least most of them."

"Ron?" he asked and Hermione nodded. Harry wasn't the least bit surprised. Even thought he believed that Harry hadn't entered the tournament the jealousy was just too strong, "It's alright. I was expecting it."

"I don't understand why he's reacting this way." Hermione exclaimed sounding more frustrated than angry, "He knows that you didn't enter your name."

"Jealousy." Harry replied, "Ron always had an inferiority complex, this was just the breaking point. I think you should be with him. No, listen to me," Harry said forcefully when Hermione opened her mouth, "He's jealous, if you stay with me he will assume that you chose me over him. That will only increase the jealousy. Stay with him, let him calm down and then we'll see."

"What about you?" she asked him after a few moments.

"Well, today I'm going to find a secluded place and hide out. Tomorrow I'll go to the library to see what I can find about the tournament and see if I can find any hint about what the first task could be."

Reluctantly Hermione nodded.

"Alright, but only for a few days, then I'm helping you." Harry knew that there was no use arguing when she used that tone, so he just nodded. Hermione hugged him and left the dorm, muttering about beating some sense into red haired prats.

As soon as the door closed Harry slumped back on his bed. It was easier than he had thought to talk with Hermione. The talk he had with his father had helped. His Hermione was dead and this one would die too. He was immortal. He would live on long after she died. It didn't mean that he didn't miss his Hermione and that he didn't mourn her but he wouldn't let it consume him. The only thing he could do was to make sure that this Hermione had a better life than his did and if possible a longer life as well.

His father. It was so strange to think that. He had never even thought that he would be able to think it. He liked it, he liked it a lot. He may be over seventy years old but Death was eons of years older. He was a child compared to Death, or maybe a toddler. Besides, after everything that he went through he had the right to be selfish, to want something for himself and he had always wanted a father. Why should he deny himself something that he had always craved?

Nodding to himself he got up, he had a lot of things to do, he may as well take advantage of the alone time he had.

* * *

Harry whistled while he walked down the road. It had been far easier to get there than he had thought, not that he was complaining, it had made his life much easier.

Sneaking out was almost child's play, considering that there were no extra security measures because they weren't at war, then a ride on the Knight Bus and voilá.

Looking around to make sure that he was alone he sneaked inside the house. It was in a far worse state than he had thought, but considering the owners condition it didn't surprise him that he didn't have the time to clean it up a bit.

Walking up the stairs he went towards what he thought was a home office and opened the door.

"Hello Tom."

The next moment a familiar green light filled his vision.

* * *

"Son, just because you can't be killed doesn't mean you shouldn't dodge when you see the killing curse coming your way."

Harry opened his eyes and looked around. He was in the same office he had woken up when the muggle had killed him. Smiling sheepishly he got up from the couch he was lying on.

"Apparently Voldemort wasn't all that pleased to see me."

"Really? You don't say, who would have thought?"

The corners of Harry's mouth twitched.

"I thought that Avada Kedavras wouldn't affect me." he looked curiously at Death. Though he was slightly out of it the previous night he remembered that bit quite well.

"They don't. However you aren't used to it, so until you know how to really handle your powers you will most likely end up here. Though as you know I can send you back to right after you were hit so to people it would look like nothing happened at all. Once you know how to control your power you won't need me to send you back. You can be hit with the killing curse and continue to do whatever you were doing as if nothing happened." Death replied and Harry nodded. "You won't change your mind about this Voldemort business, will you?" Death asked looking resigned and Harry shook his head.

He wanted things with Voldemort to work out. Not only would it be better to have an ally to kill of around five billion muggles but Tom was brilliant. He didn't want for a mind like Tom's to be lost to insanity, not now that he knew how to stop it.

"There is something I have to ask you," Death told him, sounding more serious and Harry raised an eyebrow, "Now that you are back in your younger body, you still have the Horcrux in your scar. Do you want me to remove it?"

"No!" Harry answered immediately. Death looked at him and Harry became a bit flustered, "I want to keep it," he added almost defensively, "If Tom wants it I'll place it in another receptacle, but in the mean time I'll keep it."

"You missed it." Death stated with knowing eyes and Harry blushed slightly, cursing his pale complexion, "It is understandable." Death assured him, "It was a part of you for the formative years of your live. It was a time you were almost defenseless and even though you did not know it was there, your subconscious knew you were not alone. It gave you a lot of comfort when you were in the cupboard under the stairs."

Harry looked down, not able to stand the look in those knowing eyes. Some part of him had already known that he had missed the Horcrux, but it was different having it spoken out loud by someone else. How fucked up must he be to miss a piece of soul from someone who wants to kill him? It certainly didn't bode well for his mental stability. Not that he cared about it now, but it did make him wonder how things would have turned out if war hadn't broken out with the muggles. Would insanity have claimed him too if he had lived a normal life? Was his desire to cause chaos and death because he wanted revenge or was it something that had always been there but that he had ignored? All in all those things didn't matter now, but he couldn't help but wonder.

"Do you want to go back now?" Death asked an understanding smile on his lips and Harry looked back up.

"Yes, but let a few seconds pass for him to organize his thoughts."

"I doubt that a few seconds will do much good." Death chuckled and Harry laughed, then everything went black and he felt himself fall.

* * *

Voldemort was looking at the body on the floor of his office incredulously. He closed his eyes for a few moments then opened them again. The body was still there. There went the possibility of it being an hallucination.

He had killed Harry Potter. Disregarding the fact that Potter was in his house, he had always thought that when he finally killed Harry Potter it would be more exciting. Probably in front of a crowd, to destroy their hope. This confrontation, if one could call it that, was rather anticlimactic.

Then something happened that he didn't think was possible.

Potter groaned and sat up.

Instinctively he shoot another killing curse at him, hitting him in the chest. Potter fell over, again. _After _getting up when he had only moments before been hit with a killing curse_._ This would be the third time he had hit Potter with an _Avada Kedavra_, what was that muggle saying again? Third time is the charm, or something like it, wasn't it? Maybe now Potter would do the socially accepted thing and actually stay dead after being hit with the killing curse.

For a few moments he could do nothing but stare. He couldn't believe that he was actually thinking about muggle sayings. Maybe he _was_ losing his mind. Spending thirteen years as a spirit couldn't be good for one's sanity.

* * *

"Back again?" Death asked and Harry could hear the amusement in his voice, he didn't even need to look at him to know he was smirking.

"Yeah, yeah." he grumbled, "Send me back already."

The last thing he heard before everything went dark was Death's laughter.

* * *

Voldemort didn't know if he should be surprised or not when Potter got back up. He controlled his first instinct of hitting him again with a killing curse. Didn't people say that the height of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results? So he just observed Potter and tried to understand what was going on, because clearly Potter didn't have the decency to be an hallucination or to just _stay_ dead.

"I swear to Merlin, if you don't stop hitting me with killing curses I'm going to slap you silly." Potter snapped, standing up. "Can we talk or are you going to continue with the _Avada Kedavras_?"

Voldemort just continued to look at him incredulously. Well, he had already ruled out an hallucination, but he _could_ be dreaming. There was always that possibility, he could hope. Dear sweet Merlin, _why_ couldn't he be an hallucination? It would be so much easier if he were an hallucination. It would be easier to explain too.

"I'm going to take that as a positive answer." Potter told him and sat in the armchair in front of his desk.

They were silent for a few moments, till Voldemort finally convinced himself that Potter was not, no matter how much he wished he was, an hallucination or a dream.

"Potter." he said, for lack of anything else. What could he say really? Do you want some tea? Oh by the way, why do you not just stay dead?

"Yes?" Potter asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What are you doing here?" That was a good question to start with, then he could follow it with others, such as: _How did you know where I was?_ And the most important in his opinion: _Why don't you stay dead?_

"Truthfully I'm here because of three reasons." Potter replied looking rather calm for someone who was sitting in front of a Dark Lord who wanted to kill him. "First I came here to stop you from making a big mistake. Second I came here to give you your body back. Third I came here to tell you a story."

He stared at Potter for a few seconds then started to laugh. Maybe Potter was the one who had lost his mind.

"And what do you want in exchange for giving me my body back and for stopping me from making a big mistake." sarcasm saturated every word.

"I just want you to listen to me. I will even swear on my magic that what I'll tell you is nothing but the truth as I know it. You have nothing to lose in accepting."

He narrowed his eyes and tried to enter Potter's mind, only to find occlumency shields as strong as his. Surprised he studied Potter intentionally and now that he was actually looking at him he could see it. It was well hidden but he could see it. Power. Dark, seductive, deadly. This Potter was nothing like the light puppet he had meet three years ago.

"Are you being serious?" he asked, because now he was curious. There was something different about Potter and he wanted to know what it was.

"I came here, didn't I? If I wasn't, I wouldn't have come."

"Very well," he agreed, hardly believing what was coming out of his mouth. "What is this mistake that I am going to make?" he couldn't help but let a bit of sarcasm slip into his voice.

"The ritual for your resurrection." Potter told him, completely ignoring his sarcasm, "I know that you think that it is the only way to get your body back, now that the Philosopher's Stone is destroyed. And it seems like it'll work out rather well, but in the long run it won't. The unicorn blood, unwillingly given, will curse you. It will take from you what you value most. It's funny, for a while I believed that it was your life or your magic but it's actually your mind. If you proceed with the ritual, in three years time you will be so far gone that you do not even realize that you have already won, you will not even savor your victory and you will let your little sycophants destroy everything you ever fought for. You will obsess with one thing and ignore everything else. It will destroy you."

Voldemort wanted nothing more than to deny it and hit Potter with an _Avada Kedavra_. He didn't do it though, as he had seen before _Avada Kedavra_ did nothing to the brat, aside from that he really wanted to know how Potter knew about the ritual. He had told no one what the ritual was or what he would need to use it. So how could Potter know?

"Why are you telling me that?" he asked, trying to understand this strange Potter sitting in front of him, "If it is going to destroy me, why are you trying to stop me? Isn't my destruction something that you wish? And how did you know where to find me?"

"I think it is rather obvious that I do not wish for your destruction, I want you to get a body back. The reason I want it is one of the things I have to tell you as well as how I knew where to find you. The question now is: do you want me to give you your body back?"

He really wanted to force Potter to tell him, but he didn't think it would work. Besides Potter did say that he would tell him everything. He knew that he should kill Potter and be done with it, but, not even taking into account that the killing curse didn't seem to work on him and he had no idea if something else would work, he was curious. He wanted to know what had changed. Potter was so different, people didn't change that much in three years, their magic didn't change that much in three years. Besides the promise of a new body was rather tempting. He didn't see how Potter intended to do it, but what had he to lose?

"Alright." he replied and Potter smiled.

"Excellent. It's the first time that I'm going to do it, but don't worry, theoretically I know how it works."

Before he could tell Potter that that wasn't particularly reassuring he felt something surrounding him and felt his soul being torn from his body. For a fraction of a second he felt nothing but fear. He didn't want to go back to be a wandering spirit, he hated it. He couldn't be that vulnerable again. Then the rage came. How could he have been so stupid! Why had he trusted Potter? He knew that people weren't to be trusted. How could he have allowed such a weakness. However before he could get lost in his hate and fear he felt something surrounding him again. He could feel a body around his soul, it was tiny, no bigger than an embryo, but he could feel it grow and develop. In about five minutes he was as big as a five year old child and he kept growing every second. He could do nothing but look at Potter incredulously.

Twenty minutes later the magic surrounding him left and he had to grip his desk so that he wouldn't fall. He was still looking at Potter who was sitting in the armchair, panting and with sweat dripping down his face.

"You are an elemental." he whispered roughly, his vocal cords appeared to need a little time to adjust. However that didn't really matter now. What mattered was that Potter, _Potter_, was an elemental! How was that possible? Weren't they extinct? How could Potter be one and be able to control his powers? Did Dumbledore know? If he did, it was no wonder that he wanted to use Potter as a weapon. Elementals were rumored to be pure power. They embodied the power of nature in it's purest form. Even the weakest elemental could destroy a small town in a fit of anger. If Potter was one it didn't really surprise him that the prophecy said he had the power to defeat him. He looked at the small form slumped over on the armchair and a hunger he hadn't felt in a long time filled him.

Potter looked at him, his eyes widened and he looked away.

"Er... Could you, you know, conjure some clothes for you?" Potter asked, looking anywhere but at him and he smirked. Who would have thought that Potter was so... _innocent_.

He picked up his wand, that had fallen to the floor and conjured a mirror, not at all in a hurry to conjure some clothes. He never had a problem with nudity, he didn't walk around naked, but he was comfortable in his own skin. Besides he rather enjoyed seeing Potter so flustered. Call it payback for causing him so much trouble. Well, it was time to see just what body Potter had given him.

He really wasn't expecting what he saw. He was looking at a twenty something Tom Marvolo Riddle. With all the rituals he had done he had lost his looks. It was something that he had accepted because no matter how useful his looks may have been he valued magic more. However looking at a mirror and seeing himself again felt quite good. He didn't know how much he had missed it till that moment. Though his eyes were still blood red. He was glad that those had stayed the same. His red eyes were _him_.

With a flick of his wand he conjured some clothes and turned around. A smirk appeared on his lips again when he saw that Potter still wasn't looking at him.

"You can turn around Potter." he told him, sitting on the armchair behind the desk. The magical constructed homunculus had turned to dust the moment his soul had left it. When the magic holding it together was gone it crumbled. "I'm waiting." he told Potter when he saw that Potter was just looking at him.

Potter sighed and nodded.

"Alright. I'm just going to do the magical oath." Potter told him taking his wand out, "I, Hadrian James Potter, swear on my magic that what I am about to tell Tom Marvolo Riddle is the truth as I know it, so mote it be." a soft golden light surrounded Potter for a few seconds then it slowly dissipated.

"As you must know, before I was born there was a prophecy made that Snape partially overheard and told you about. You know perfectly well what happened next so there is no need to go over it. What you don't know, what nobody knows, is how I survived. Until recently I didn't know either, but we will get to that in a little bit. Dumbledore assumed that my mother's sacrifice had saved me, so to keep me protected he left me with my mother's sister and created bloodwards. I spent the next ten years after that as a slave for those disgusting muggles, sleeping in the cupboard under the stairs. Not knowing what I was, who I was."

"What?" Voldemort snarled, "How dare they mistreat a magical child! They should be killed!"

"Feel free to kill them." Harry told him, slightly surprised with his reaction. Though maybe he shouldn't be. They had similar childhoods and this Voldemort still had his mind. From what he had learned about Voldemort after the war, before his fall he had never harmed children. It was true that there were children killed in raids, but they were never tortured and the children were only killed if the objective was to kill the whole family. It didn't happen all that often. He had been the exception and even then Voldemort had only hit him with the killing curse, no torture, no nothing. After everything he had seen he believed that the killing curse was a rather merciful way to kill someone. No pain, just death. Painless and fast.

He wasn't sorry about handing the Dursleys over to Tom on a silver platter either. He had never forgiven Petunia and Vernon for what they had done to their own grand-daughter when they found out she was magical. The little girl had been born a year or two before the war started and had her first case of accidental magic when she was six years old. Vernon and Petunia were taking care of her for the day because Dudley had been at work and her mother had been sick with the flu. They saw it happen. The bastards sold the little girl to a laboratory that wanted to make experiments on wizards and witches, by that time magical beings were seen as nothing more than animals by most people. The staff was quite happy to pay the Dursleys for her. He only knew about it because Dudley had called him, begging him to save Violet, his baby girl.

By the time they found her it was already to late. She had been with them only for a little over two days. It was unbelievable the amount of damage they had been able to do in such a short time. It had been far more merciful to end her suffering.

A week later the bodies of Petunia and Vernon were found, shot in the head. Dudley walked into the lab with a bomb strapped to his chest. He took the whole building down and more than half the staff. They found a letter addressed to his wife. From what he learned latter on he said that he did not want to live in a world where a sweet little girl, his innocent little flower, could be tortured just because she was different and people found it normal. He had said that if that was being normal than he would rather be a freak. Truthfully that was the only moment he could remember being proud of his cousin.

"I thought you were a muggle lover." Voldemort remarked, bringing him out of his thoughts.

"You thought wrong." Potter replied, his eyes cold. The shadows around him seemed to gain a life of their own and he felt the temperature drop suddenly, the whole atmosphere had an oppressing feeling.

Voldemort observed the change fascinated. He had read about how an elemental's emotions affected the elements, however one thing was reading about it, another completely different thing was actually seeing it. It was no wonder that elementals were as feared as they were and had been hunted to extinction. It disgusted him knowing what people did in name of the Light. Out of fear they labeled elementals as dark beings and hunted them down. They were powerful, but not all powerful. It varied, just like a wizard's power. They completely ignored the fact that all wizards were in some way elementals too, not true elementals like Potter was, but they were tied to the elements as well. It was true that true elementals were dangerous, but so were wizards. The hypocrisy of it sickened him. Power like the one Potter had should be treasured, not feared and hated.

Potter took a deep breath and everything went back to normal. He didn't take his eyes of Potter. That hunger was back. He wanted that power.

"You know what happened in my first year, you were there. In my second year I meet you again."

"No, you didn't." Voldemort interrupted.

"Yes, I did. Not you specifically but a version of you. Sixteen year old you, trapped in a diary."

He tensed and when he saw Potter's knowing eyes he snarled and pointed his wand at him.

"What did you do to it?"

"I destroyed it." Potter told him calmly and he had difficulty controlling his rage. "Calm down," Potter said, frowning, "I still have many things to tell you. We can talk about this when I'm done if you want to."

He took a deep breath and lowered his wand. He could kill Potter later for destroying his Horcrux, it was more important to know if Potter knew what the diary was and if he knew that there were more. How could he have found out? Maybe Dumbledore found out and told the brat. He needed to see if the others were safe. He couldn't risk more of his soul.

Potter told him about the rest of the year and even though he was still not happy about what had happened to his Horcrux, he understood. Potter hadn't even known that it was him he was facing and after he found out it was all about survival. If he had been in the same situation he would have done the same. Lucius on the other hand... Lucius would suffer for disobeying him.

Potter continued telling him about his third year. He didn't go into details, just a quick overlay of what had happened and how Wormtail ended up free.

When Potter reached his fourth year that was when things started to get quite interesting. Potter told him about the tasks and what he did in them and he wanted to speak up, but one look from Potter shut him up. He almost wasn't able to hide his incredulity as Potter told him about the ritual he would have performed if Potter hadn't given him his body back. The duel that Potter described was just as unbelievable. Unfortunately Potter didn't stop there and continued on to his fifth year. He was so transfixed that he didn't even react when he heard the whole prophecy. He would have time to think about it later. By sixth year he wanted to deny every word that was coming out of Potter's mouth, but he couldn't. Potter knew too much for it to be a lie. Besides he could see it in his eyes. Those eyes showed everything. Potter was being honest, he was telling the truth. Of course there was also the little matter of the magical oath that Potter had taken, so he _knew_ that he was telling the truth, however that didn't make it less unbelievable.

He never thought that he would feel relieved when he heard about his death. He now understood what Potter had meant when he said he would have been to far gone. He sounded like a rabid dog and rabid dogs should be put down. He had never wanted to destroy the wizarding world. It was his home, the place he truly belonged. The world that Potter had described was nothing like he had envisioned. No matter what happened he would never allow himself to lose his mind. He knew that he wasn't the sanest person around, even when he was younger he knew that he wasn't quite _normal_, but he had never lost his mind. He had always been rational. He prided himself on being one of the most brilliant minds that the wizarding world had ever seen, to lose that to insanity and not even noticing, was truly horrible.

"We had peace for around nineteen years, though in the blink of an eye everything changed. One day we were living our lives and the other we were being hunted. The muggles found out about us."

For a few moments they didn't say anything, Harry lost in his thoughts and Voldemort trying to understand what he had heard. Because there was no way that he had heard right, it had to be wrong.

"What?" his voice was low and deceivingly calm, "How?"

"The muggle prime minister exposed us. We found out later that he was a squib that hated us for having what he didn't. He was adopted by a good family, had a rather good life, even his magical family cared for him. The only reason they gave him up for adoption was because they believed he would have a better life with the muggles, though they did tell him he was free to visit them every time he wanted and they even opened a Gringotts vault for him. There were no tragic events in his life. He just hated us, envied us.

"He exposed our world to the muggles and since he was a squib he knew how to obtain the information needed to prove it. The religious fanatics were the first to adhere to campaigns to exterminate us or to put laws in place that would see us as no better than animals. I still can't believe how fast the laws to deny us any human rights were put in place. They could do anything to us and they wouldn't be punished. For the first two years there were still muggles who cared. They fought for our rights. That was when they started to distribute information about Grindelwald and how he helped Hitler during World War II. They said that Hitler would never have gotten as far as he had if it weren't for the wizards. From helping Hitler to creating Hitler wasn't that much of a stretch in their minds. Soon wizards were blamed for everything bad that had ever happened, even natural catastrophes. For the first time ever the whole world was in agreement. What did they care if they worshiped different gods, or if they had different skin colors? They had finally found a common enemy. Wizards. The church saw this as an opportunity and the Inquisition was reinstated. The war that followed was... I don't think there is a word that could describe it. Many of us preferred to kill themselves than to be captured by the Inquisition. When we saw how bad it had gotten we believed that our wards would keep us safe. We were wrong.

"Hogwarts... Hogwarts was completely destroyed. They targeted it because they knew it was a school. They didn't care that they were killing innocent children. In their eyes they had magic so they had to die. I still remember the smell of blood, fire and burned flesh.

"I had to dig out the broken and burned body of my daughter form the ruins. My little Lily was the first of my children to die."

Potter stopped and took a deep breath. For the first time in a long time he didn't know what to do. A part of him didn't want to hear anymore, he didn't want to know what nightmarish world Potter had left behind. However a bigger part of him wanted to know more, wanted to know everything. What Potter was telling him may be unbelievable and he may want to write it of as Potter having lost his mind, but those eyes... Those eyes didn't lie. It was impossible to fake such pain. For a fraction of a second Potter look like a tired old man who had seen to much and lost everything a man could lose instead of the fourteen year old teenager that had his whole life ahead of him.

"Even after everything they had done they weren't satisfied. They started using nuclear weapons."

"What?" he whispered. He couldn't believe that the muggles would use nuclear weapons. He knew what kind of destruction those weapons caused, didn't they realize the damage they would do?

"Yes, I didn't even know there were so many of them. Before that they had resorted to biological weapons, but those didn't hurt us all that much, our magic protected us from most of what they threw at us and they were never able to get their hands on any wizarding diseases. They killed far more muggles with it than magical beings. But they didn't care. If they had to kill one hundred muggles to get one wizard then they saw it as a success. Stupid idiots." Potter sneered and he agreed, even though the muggles outnumbered them it would be stupid to use such weapons knowing that they were killing more of their own race than magical beings. "They destroyed the planet. Large animals were all but extinct, vegetation wouldn't grow, the rain was toxic. The planet was dying.

"When the muggle shot me there were only a handful of wizards left. Not that the muggles were doing much better. The big cities were practically deserted and there was no cluster of civilization that had more than one hundred people. The men and women became infertile, even if they survived on the dying planet it would become impossible to repopulate. It was one of the consequences of the radiation and the biological weapons. One of them was a virus that was supposed to affect our sperm. It did nothing to us, but the muggles... That, combined with everything else that they created, was enough to make even most animals infertile. There hadn't been any births or pregnancies in the last six years. Either way the muggles were doomed."

Voldemort couldn't really imagine a world like that. It was a true nightmare, his darkest fears come to life. He had lived through World War II, he had witnessed the bombings. He had always wondered what would happen if all that destructive force was aimed at them. Now he knew and wished he didn't.

"I died and woke up in an office..."

Well... Maybe he should be thankful that Potter didn't appear to want to fight him. Death's son. Fate really hated him, didn't it? How in Salazar's name was he supposed to win against _Death__'s_ son?

"That's how I survived. I was born an elemental, even though I didn't know how to control the elements, they still reacted to my emotions. The Life element reacted to my fear and distress and sucked the life force around me to counteract the _Avada Kedavra_. The two opposing elements collided, _Avada Kedavra_ is closely linked to the element Death, which made the _Avada Kedavra_ rebound. Death gave me the control over my ability. That's how I gave you your body back. I had your soul, so I only needed to develop the life that it already had. Of course I wouldn't have been able to do it if you were truly dead. There are also my limits to consider. It seems that I don't have the energy to age you more than twenty-five years, if I had continued it is likely that I would have died. Well, considering everything I wouldn't have stayed dead, but you understand what I mean."

"Why did you come back?" he asked when Potter stayed silent for a while. He suspected he knew the answer but he wanted to hear Potter say it.

"I am going to kill them all." Potter replied and for a few moments it looked like he was looking Death in the face. No, not Death. Death's son. He couldn't stop a shiver running down his spine. It was difficult to see the Light's puppet that he had meet a few years back when he was looking into killing curse green eyes that shone with deadly intent. He wondered how Dumbledore would react if he knew what his little pawn had become. He really wanted to be there when he found out. And he would find out. He doubted that Potter would play the student for much longer.

"Oh, I almost forgot, I have your Horcrux again. Can I keep it or do you want to transfer it to another receptacle?"

He had almost forgotten that little detail. Potter was his Horcrux. Death's son was his Horcrux.

"You are truly immortal." he remarked, "I will be too, as long as my soul stays with you. What do you want?" he asked, narrowing his eyes. Both of them knew that Potter had all the carts in his hand. He was in a rather disadvantageous position and both knew it.

"I want an alliance between us. However the safety of your Horcrux isn't depended on it. I will keep your Horcrux safe for as long as I have it with me, regardless of your decision on this matter. I want you to ally yourself to me because you want it, not because you think I will destroy your soul if you don't."

Well, Potter continued to surprise him. If anyone else had told him that he wouldn't have believed them. Potter on the other hand... He had no reason to lie and again those eyes were giving him away. His face may be emotionless but his eyes betrayed him.

"I need to think." he told Potter, because he truly did. He was almost certain that he would accept but he needed to organize his thoughts. Potter had told him so many things, he needed time to look all of it over.

"Alright. You can contact me through Barty." Potter told him and got up.

He nodded and Potter waved before leaving his office whistling. He shook his head, why did he have the feeling that his life had just become a lot more complicated?

* * *

**A.N.:** Hello all_** :)**_ Thank you all for your support. The response to Death's Son has been amazing and I couldn't be happier :D

So, a few people were wondering if this was going to be a political fic. The answer is no. Sure, there is going to be some politics but the whole story won't be about that. Harry doesn't care all that much about politics, he wants to kill the muggles and that's about it. Tom will be the one playing politics and it will be only so that they can avoid the whole muggle finding out about them. Neither of them care about getting control through politics, they will be perfectly happy if they have to cause a bloodbath to get what they want, they would even enjoy it more. Harry isn't all that light anymore, he won't kill those he considers his friends but anyone else his fair game.

Hope you enjoy this chapter. Next chapter there will be more Tom and Barty will be added to the mix... I _love_ Barty, Harry will torment him so much, as well as Lucius and the LeStrange brothers. Poor Death Eaters they won't know what hit them...


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